February 02, 2023

America’s Hoped-For Asian Semiconductor Pact Looks Tricky

Source: The Economist

The vision of a “democratic semiconductor supply chain” is not implausible. But creating chip networks rather than fuelling chip wars will require careful co-ordination within individual governments, between allied governments and across public and private sectors. Taiwanese and South Korean chipmakers are locked in a fierce contest to produce next-generation chips. Differences over history poison relations between Japan and South Korea—and have spilled over into the chip trade in the past. None of the countries’ bureaucrats are well-equipped to handle the complexity of semiconductor supply chains. The Chip 4 alliance itself reflects “limited thinking on this”, argues Martijn Rasser, a former senior American official: “How can you have a real conversation about semiconductor supply chains without the Netherlands and probably Belgium?”

Read the full story and more from The Economist.

Author

  • Martijn Rasser

    Former Senior Fellow and Director, Technology and National Security Program

    Martijn Rasser is the former Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at CNAS. Prior to joining CNAS, Rasser served as a senior intelligence ...